Students will naturally start losing motivation in a college course over time. This is an even bigger problem in online courses, where students can easily feel distanced from the instructor and each other. As an instructor, I notice this as a steadily deteriorating quality of
When final projects are submitted, no one likes to believe that their students haven’t “tried,” but sometimes it’s hard to draw any other conclusion. Most of us work with at least a few (sometimes more) students whose papers are littered with errors. When we are
Most students find it difficult to think of famous historical personalities as real people. They also read texts without realizing that there are tangible personalities behind them. I have found one of the most effective ways to give flesh and blood to the past is
It’s hardly a new subject. Every teacher knows it’s essential, and every teacher tries to motivate students. But it’s just as true that all teachers have experienced those days when they don’t feel particularly motivated, when the content seems old and tired, and when students
There’s a big cohort of students who want learning to be fun and easy. A lot of learning isn’t either. Most faculty get worried if the word fun is attached to a course they teach. It can mean they’re entertaining more than educating. What happens
What about letting students make some choices about learning the content in our courses? Most of us already do at least a bit of that. We let them decide on paper topics, what they want to create or perform, or whether they will do optional
Do grades motivate students? The answer is yes, but it’s not an unqualified yes. Below are highlights from a couple of first-rate studies that illustrate those qualifications, and they aren’t the only studies to do so.
To reach the “selfie” generation enrolled in my Freshman Seminar class, I have used their tendency toward narcissism to help them discover how they spend their time and what part social media plays in their college experience. Drawing on the work of Nonis, Philhours, and
It’s often unexpected and usually something of an affront: The teacher has devoted time and energy to preparing a new activity (or series of activities) for students. The teacher has opted to use the activities because they are consistent with what the research says about
Getting students to do their assigned reading is a struggle. Most teachers don’t need anyone to tell them what the research pretty consistently reports. On any given day, only 20 to 30 percent of the students arrive at class having done the reading. Faculty are
